Lock and Load, Twist and Shoot

In November 15th, 2011 I commented about the Gabriel Giffords shooting. Since then a lot has happened … In a massacre so vicious it left a President in tears, 20 young children, six adults and a shooter are dead in Newtown, Connecticut following the second-deadliest school attack in U.S. history. Read more in the full story.

It does not help matters that the killer’s mother was a Doomsday Prepper. This would explain the “what-the-hell” attitude that killing as many people as I can, because the world will end anyway …

There have been numerous mass shootings since November 2011, when this article was originally written and posted on BlueBloggin

The tragedy of shooting up an elementary school, with war weapons borrowed from a murdered parent, has changed everything! On top of all this, sickness still pours onto America’s grief. Again, without regard to the pain the majority of us are feeling, Westboro Church has decided to pour salt into our wounds. Their nasty rhetoric has my ire! In my own sadness, HATE is not acceptable, and I refuse to comply with HATE of my own. I do NOT hate anyone or anything. I am filled with disgust and sadness that there are still sick people walk freely among us and hurt other people. To quote America’s President, “We can’t tolerate this anymore,” and Senators Mark Warner and Robert Menendez and Newtown residents, all say ‘enough is enough’ after tragedy. “Seeing the massacre of so many innocent children has changed everything,” Senator Joe Manchin said, “Everything has to be on the table.”

“enough is enough”

Below is my original article from November of last year. What I said then still applies today … many mass shootings later.

If no one speaks up soon, every criminal and crazy will come to the gun shows to get the tools of their trade. Legally. The Gun Debate is so twisted that the issue is totally missed. The laws being presented do not take my gun away. That is because I am not diagnosed with a mental impairment nor have I committed a crime.

Felons Finding It Easy to Regain Gun Rights This gradual pulling back of what many Americans have unquestioningly assumed was a blanket prohibition has drawn relatively little public notice. Indeed, state law enforcement agencies have scant information, if any, on which felons are getting their gun rights back, let alone how many have gone on to commit new crimes.

While many states continue to make it very difficult for felons to get their gun rights back — and federal felons are out of luck without a presidential pardon — many other jurisdictions are far more lenient, The Times found. In some, restoration is automatic for nonviolent felons as soon as they complete their sentences. In others, the decision is left up to judges, but the standards are generally vague, the process often perfunctory. In some states, even violent felons face a relatively low bar, with no waiting period before they can apply.

Gun SALES UP 2.6%, WHILE GUN CRIMES DOWN 2.4%. . . New statistics show that firearm and ammunition sales are on the rise, coinciding with steady downward trends in gun crime, suicide and accident rates in the U.S. The National Shooting Sports Foundation has released U.S. Dept. of the Treasury figures indicating that 2005 retail sales of firearms and ammunition rose 2.6 percent for a total volume of $2.1 billion. For the year, approximately 4.7 million new guns were sold, bringing the estimated number of citizen-owned firearms in the U.S. to more than 290 million. The number of American households with at least one firearm is now estimated at nearly 110 million.
Of the various firearm types, the sharpest gains were seen in retail sales of handguns (pistols and revolvers). Handgun sales rose 3 percent while long-gun (rifle and shotgun) sales rose 1.8 percent. Ammunition sales rose 3.5 percent.

Is your radical sub conscious desire to have an armed crazy break in to your home, just so you can blast them to smithereens? And, of course, that would, no doubt, prove your point, if you survived. You have defended your sacred home against the evil out there. You are the hero of your neighborhood. The alien invaders are trembling in their extra terrestrial boots. You can own a small arsenal, but if the government really thinks you are a threat, they bring in the gun ships and blow a hole in the earth where your arsenal used to be.

I have my personal reasons for owning a gun, but they are not to threaten the government, commit a crime or kill animals. It alarms me that my fellow gun owners are so way out of control on this topic. The NRA has done an exemplary job of switching the debate to the Constitutional Rights of citizens … That’s all well and good. The Founding Fathers were not faced with an overcrowded society with rampant mental illness and drug induced aggression. You don’t give a crack head a gun. You don’t give a convicted criminal a gun. That’s the bottom line. It is so easy to influence the mentally unstable public, that any restrictions to legally owning a gun is unconstitutional. Bull Shit! Granted the mentally ill and felons have most of their constitutional rights intact. But, if Charles Manson were paroled today I don’t want him to seek out the first Gun Show and buy a .357 Magnum or an AK-47. I don’t want him sitting next to me on a plane, either … bad me. I don’t want some revenge motivated deluded nut case shooting up a school, mall or political rally, either. Bless the incredible Gabrielle Giffords for surviving this disaster.

Time to arm the Democrats, the Tea Partiers are itching for a showdown …maybe they will be less enthusiastic if it is a fair fight. Of course, if a responsible law was passed, and we all abide by it, how many Tea Partiers would qualify for a permit?

I would no more tell my doctor if I owned fimarres than I would tell the local busybody bureaucrats if I owned 6 pit bulls! Such omissions can have consequences. Like a visit from an armed government team of one sort or another. What worries me about the dismissive tone of the linked post towards those who worry about invasive questions from physicians is that they have too much power, and it is growing — thanks to insurance companies. Hence the above comment:He did apologize, but claimed that he was required to ask by the insurance companies.We are fast approaching a point where lying to a doctor is insurance fraud if it isn’t already. Insurance fraud is a crime. And when a doctor is required to ask, how far is that from the patient being required to answer? When doctors have that kind of power, the only redress people have is with legislation. So I am not inclined to dismiss out of hand the concerns of people who feel they need a law. They may!